Kickstarter founder launches new nonprofit concept

It’s always interesting to speculate about which new ideas and websites are likely to change the world of online fundraising forvever. Over the last five years I’ve written about some that have changed the landscape dramatically and others that seemed equally full of positive potential vanish without a trace shortly after launch. A new site worth a look at today comes courtesy from the idea of Perry Chen and if the name doesn’t immediately make you take notice the fact that he was the creator of the hugely successful crowdfunding site www.kickstarter.com might resonate.

Perry recently took a step back at Kickstarter and has since been dedicating much of his time to a new concept called Dollar A Day, the site is designed to raise funds for nonprofits but ahead of that is the more general goal of raising awareness about organizations you may not be familiar with. At the core is an idea that’s as simple as it could very well prove effective.

The site is now live at https://www.dollaraday.co/ and already features the initial featured charities to be showcased during October. On thecalendar link you’ll see each of the charities to be sponsored this month which include organizations large and small which serve every sector you can think of.

However it’s the premise that is wonderfully simple and is what may well lead to a unique and hugely successful idea for a website. The premise is that by signing up to the site you agree to contribute one dollar per day to the chosen nonprofit featured on the website each day. Once you’ve registered your commitment is to contribute $30 over the first (and any) month and you can extend or cease your monthly obligation at any time. You can learn much more by visiting the site or subscribing to the free daily newsletter which again has an idea that’s both original and simplistic – the daily email will provide a one paragraph overview of the featured charity and the option to either enroll on the monthly plan or indeed contact the nonprofit directly if preferred.

The success of the site will of course be based on how quickly word of mouth and social media helps to spread the idea and the level of support for the site which builds over time but it’s really easy to see that as time passes the value that the site could bring to hundreds of nonprofits could be very substantial. Chen himself explained some of his reasoning:

“We built this to be very simple and very small, but to have a big impact. You want a sound structure and you want to solve the problems that exist. We’re not trying to grow this as big as possible in terms of hiring a bunch of people… We’re trying to let people know that Dollar a Day is a discovery and education platform. People can learn about non-profits that they might not be familiar with and take it from there.”

At the heart of the idea is just how straight-forward and ‘light’ the venture is, the organization itself has a full time staff of just two individuals along with a supporting board. It’s also easy to see that the site can provide a wonderful platform for any organization with the current requirements being that the featured charity must be a registered 501(c)3 organization in good financial standing. Here’s a little more about who they hope to spotlight as featured nonprofits on the new site:

“We select innovative and high impact nonprofits with responsible track records in six key areas: Education, Health, Economic Development, Arts & Culture, Environment, and Human Rights. When selecting nonprofits, we consider a variety of factors. We look for organizations that pursue innovative solutions to problems in their fields, such as pushing the envelope with cutting edge research, designing new methods to solve problems more efficiently, or identifying and tackling underrepresented issues. We look for high impact organizations that work with the communities they serve to implement long-lasting solutions, as well as those that address root causes rather than only individual symptoms”

Dollar A Day is also a nonprofit and will make no money in any way via the website. To learn morehttps://www.dollaraday.co/, check out their FAQ page or register for the free email newsletter. Better still let your friends in the nonprofit industry know about the site and hopefully they can be featured in the future.

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Miratel Solutions is a Toronto call centre, eBusiness, and letter shop mail house specializing in professional fundraising services including PCI compliant inbound telephone fundraising, outbound telephone fundraising, online fundraising, lottery fundraising services, donation processing and receipting and direct mail fundraising services. We are committed to our CSR business values in all our business decisions and advancing the missions of the nonprofits we proudly serve.